Classic ends for Guiel sooner than he’d hoped

Surprise, Ariz.  Aaron Guiel was back Friday in the Kansas City Royals' camp - not that he didn't want to be there, but he thought it was premature.

Guiel has been starting in the outfield for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic. The Canadians beat South Africa and the United States but lost to Mexico in their final game.

The United States and Mexico advance to the next round, while Canada is eliminated, although all three had 2-1 records.

"It was more of a feather in our cap," Guiel said of Canada's 8-6 victory over the United States. "It ended up not being that important to the tournament because of whatever obscure tiebreaking rules they had. It ended up whether we beat the United States or not, we would have had to win (against Mexico), and we didn't."

The tie-breaking rule was runs allowed in head-to-head games. Mexico allowed three runs, the USA eight and Canada 15.

"Mexico scored zero runs against the United States," Guiel said. "We scored eight against the United States. We should go based on that, alone. Based on runs scored, we've outdone them both. But the thing is, we can't be bitter because we knew that going into the tournament. Even though none of us understood what the rules were, we definitely knew the rules."

After falling, 9-1, to Mexico on Thursday night, Canada really had no hope: It needed to have South Africa beat the United States on Friday. The United States crushed South Africa, 17-0.

"It is a great experience," Guiel said. "I'm glad I did it. We enjoyed it.

"None of us is going to look back. None of us is bitter. None of us is regretful how about how everything turned out. I played internationally for Canada before a couple of times, but this one was different. To see the kind of lineups teams are putting up, it was the best of the best."